


Words

by CrimeAlley1048



Category: Batfamily - Fandom, Batgirl (Comics), Nightwing (Comics), Robin (Comics)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-16
Updated: 2018-05-16
Packaged: 2019-05-07 22:47:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14681052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrimeAlley1048/pseuds/CrimeAlley1048
Summary: Sometimes Cass doesn't feel entirely welcome.





	Words

Cass sat on the rafters while Dick and Tim chattered beneath her. They hadn’t noticed her come in, so she sat by herself, swinging her boots back and forth in the emptiness, following along. Dick sat on a fraying couch while Tim bounced around him, telling a story about chasing a gunman by the docks. He paced around the room and ducked behind the furniture to demonstrate, laughing the entire time.

There were words too, of course. Cass could hear them just fine, even if she didn’t recognize them. She tried closing her eyes, listening carefully, but Tim talked too fast, and there were too many words, and she could hear him moving around, anyway: across the room, behind the couch, springing over it to mime surprising the gunman. The movement alone told her everything she needed to know.

It was… Cass didn’t know the word to describe it, but it felt like being lost in the alleyways that spanned the city, turning the same corners over and over again without moving any further. It was black and heavy, and it made her body ache.

Dick didn’t laugh like that with her. No one did. No one sat with her or leaned towards her or even brushed by her in tight spaces. Tim’s eyes followed her around rooms, and Cass knew it wasn’t malicious. She moved too silently, and she startled him often. It didn’t happen if he knew where she was.

Still. He didn’t watch the others. It didn’t matter that Bruce was quiet too.

Cass was new. That was the problem, wasn’t it? If she waited, she could be one of them. If she listened for long enough, she could learn to tell stories.

Cass wanted it to be true. Was it? She wasn’t like them. Even Bruce…

Bruce looked at her like a man who saw the stars and forgot to look away. Every movement Cass made was beautiful to him. His face said what else? What more could she do? What else  
could he teach her? Things that no one else could learn.

Cass did not want to be beautiful or fascinating or extraordinary. She had been all of those things before (bodies on the ground, blood on her knuckles, man smiling down at her). Cass wanted…

Cass _wanted_. Below her, Tim finished his story and flopped backwards onto the couch, arms loose, half-laughing, one booted foot kicking upward as he fell. Dick laughed too. He put a hand on Tim’s head and ruffled his hair. They were like—

Woman with a baby on her hip, tiny hand wrapped around her finger, soft face, eyes down, half-smile…

Love. Cass knew that word. She wasn’t entirely sure she knew what it meant.

Cass squeezed her hand into a fist so tight it shook as she slammed it into the rafter. The sound of it made both Dick and Tim jerk around, eyes narrow, bodies tight, ready to move— ready for danger. Their faces relaxed when they saw Cass above them. Their bodies did not.

Dick looked at her like Nightwing looked at men with knives in alleyways. Tim looked at her like she was footsteps in the darkness and he couldn’t find from where. They always did.

Cass dropped onto the floor beside them, nodding a greeting. Tim smiled brightly in return. He didn’t mean the smile or whatever words he said afterwords: something startled and determinedly friendly mixed around her name. He wanted her to think she was welcome. Some days it was enough that he wanted it, even if he stood like he might need to run away from her.

Not today. Tim repeated her name, voice trailing upward into a question. Did she understand him? Did she know he was talking to her? Cass’s face turned hot while her insides hardened into something sharp and heavy.

Of course she understood him! Cass understood everything, much more than Tim or anyone else wanted her to know. Why didn’t they understand _her_? They could see her, couldn’t they? She was right in front of them.

Cass swung to face Tim, intentionally sudden, and glared with exaggerated eyes, projecting as much as she possibly could. Maybe he would understand that. Tim flinched backwards in surprise. Good. She marched past the pair of them with her boots hitting the floor much too loudly, jerked open the door, and left.

She heard them muttering behind her as the door swung closed. Good! They made her feel… she didn’t know the word. Surrounded by emptiness, like watching the ocean or standing in the rain. The color of concrete and storm clouds. Heavy. Dark.

Like sitting on the roof while other people laughed beneath her.


End file.
